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Does anyone have any advice for caravanning without electric hook up.  We have only ever been on sites with ehu and wondered is there anything we do different, and how long a battery lasts?  If battery only lasts few days, how do you charge it, do people take a spare battery away with them? Sorry if these are dumb questions, but have searched the forum and can't seem to find answers - maybe I am looking at wrong forum.  Any advice greatly appreciated.

We fancy trying to be EHU free in the future so I've been vaguely looking into it. Lots of people do it especially at rallies and temp holiday sites as they generally don't have EHU. From what I have gleaned a battery will last about 4 to 5 days maybe more if you are very frugal with your usage but obviously it will vary depending on what you are using.

The options we are looking at are solar panels - lots of threads about this.

But I fancy just buying a spare battery and stowing it safely somewhere in the car. Some keep them in their vans connected up with the other one. Some keep them in their car - connected up and charged up by the alternator etc. Many threads on here about these options.

Plus - the caravan club CL's offer battery charging facilities if you need to charge the used one. I haven't used this though.  

Lots of options - but no real experience !!!

Just do the same as having a motorhome, put a solar panel on the roof  and install a second battery. You will have to run the fridge off gas and either have a 12 volt tv or use an inverter.

Mike

hi we choose not to use ehu unless its included in the pitch fee (twice in 5 years) we have a  40 watt solar panel and   during the summer months it easily keeps the battery topped up we don't take a tv which i think is one of the worst items for battery drain other than that we use lights etc as you would on ehu. the fridge  and  hot water run off gas so we really have no need for ehu

We use candles/lanterns in the awning and outside, if allowed we have a fire in the brazier, the cooker, fridge, hot water and fire run off gas, battery runs the lights and we turn the shower head to off in-between soaping up. Going to bed late helps but we're normally sat outside around the brazier if the weather is good, with a glass or two, we don't even bother taking a TV unless we have electric.

Our trips tend to be for about 4 nights and we have never had a problem.

I'll be caravaning mostly non electric this year , at present i have a 300watt pure sine wave inverter , 2 x 40watt solar panels ( soon to add one more 40 watt ) , i'll be using a 20watt 16" Led TV with combined freeview & dvd , most of my vans lights are Led's , one 110 amp battery . With 120watts on tap i'm hoping i won't run out of electric at all .

atb

Wizard